Uighur Islamic Militant Group threatens Olympics Attacks; Anti-China Protest in India, Nepal ahead of Olympic; UN Envoy sees "Hope" of Improvement in Myanmar's Human Rights Record.

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia 

BEIJING, China — According to a U.S. intelligence group that monitors terrorist communications, an Uighur Islamic militant group has threatened to attack the Beijing Olympics released a new video warning Muslims to avoid being on planes, trains and buses with Chinese at the games.

The video was made by the Turkistan Islamic Party, which seeks independence for China's western Xinjiang region, the site Intelligence Group said.  In the video, a man who wears a black turban, covers his face and holding an assault rifle, who identifies himself as Abdullah Mansour, says in the Uighur language: “We, members of the Turkestan Islamic Party, have declared war against China. We oppose China’s occupation of our homeland of East Turkestan, which is a part of the Islamic world.”  The video also features graphics: a burning Olympics logo and an explosion imposed over an apparent Olympic venue.

Another video issued Wednesday claims the communist regime's alleged mistreatment of Muslims justifies holy war.  It accuses China of forcing Muslims into atheism by capturing and killing Islamic teachers and destroying Islamic schools, according to the site Intelligence Group. It also says China's birth control program has forced abortions on Muslim women.

Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, appeared to be on high alert. Security guards were checking bags at the entrances of hotels, department stores and discos in the busy city.  Guards with red armbands rode on most public buses, watchful for attackers. Small groups of police patrolled the sidewalks of the bustling Muslim quarter, where merchants cooked lamb kebabs and sliced up watermelons at fruit stands.

The Uighurs has with a long history of tense relations with the central government.  Urging Muslims to "choose your side," the man warns: "Do not stay on the same bus, on the same train, on the same plane, in the same buildings, or any place the Chinese are," according to a translation by the site Intelligence Group.

For more information, please see:

AFP - China's Muslim west tense ahead of Olympic opening - 07 August 2008

AP - Chinese Islamic group issues new Olympic threat - 07 August 2008

Bloomberg - Uighur Militants Threaten Olympic Attacks, U.S. Monitor Says - 08 August 2008

New York Times - Group Says Video Warns of Olympic Attack - 07 August 2008

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NEW DELHI, India — Thousands of angry Tibetan exiles in India and Nepal held anti-China protests on the eve of the Beijing Olympics, saying the occasion was an opportunity for their plight to be recognized around the world.

In New Delhi about 1,000 Tibetans staged a march, carrying Tibetan flags and shouting, "Say no to Beijing Olympics" and "No Olympics in China". Protesters wore T-shirts that read "Help protect the practice of Buddhism in Tibet" and "Stop cultural genocide".  "Tibetan culture and religion is in serious threat. China is trying to wipe out the identity of Tibetans," said Dolma, 22, a nun who goes by one name. "We want China to guarantee religious freedom and human rights in Tibet," Dakpa Tenzin, chairman of Tibetan Young Buddhist Association, told AFP.  Police and paramilitary troops were deployed with fire extinguishers and buckets of water amid fears that protesters would set themselves on fire.

About 2,000 Tibetans and Nepali supporters staged anti-China protests in the Nepali capital Kathmandu. Police charged with batons raised to break up the demonstration and detained 513 of the protesters -- 337 men and 176 women -- police said.  The demonstrators had staged a peaceful sit-in protest since early Thursday but later refused to disperse, prompting police to charge and beat them with bamboo sticks, a Reuters photographer at the scene said.

Tibetan exiles in both Nepal and India have been protest frequently to show their support for the uprising that erupted in Tibet's capital in March, and to protest China's hosting of the Olympics.

For more information, please see:

AFP - Tibetans protest in India, Nepal ahead of Olympics - 07 August 2008

AP - Tibet exiles protest against China in Nepal, India - 07 August 2008

Reuters - Hundreds detained as Tibetans march in India, Nepal - 07 August 2008

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YANGON, Myanmar - Human Rights Watch issued a report alleging that the Myanmar government has made no moves to improve human rights over the past 20 years.  According to the report, on August 8, 1988, millions of Burmese took to the streets to demand an end to military rule.  Government forces violently crushed the mass protests, opening fire into crowds of students and Buddhist monks.  An estimated 3,000 people were killed nationwide during the seven months of protests. There has been no independent investigation or prosecution of the members of Myanmar’s security forces involved in the violence of 1988.

The anniversary comes a day after the new United Nations human rights envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana met with top officials from the opposition National League for Democracy and political prisoners during his five-day visit to Myanmar.  But he was not allowed to meet with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader who has spent most of the last 19 years under house arrest at her rambling lakeside home in Yangon.  But Quintana says that he received positive signs that the ruling junta accepted the need for his mandate to investigate widespread claims of abuses in the country.  The envoy also spoke with top disaster relief officials coordinating the relief effort for 2.4 million people struggling to piece back their lives following Cyclone Nargis.

Quintana said in June that the human rights situation in Myanmar "has not changed for the better" since the last report by his predecessor, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, whose mandate ended in April.  He hoped to return to Myanmar before report his findings to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2009. 

For more information, please see:

AFP - UN envoy sees 'good signs' from Myanmar at end of mission - 07 August 2008

Human Rights Watch - Burma: No Rights Reform 20 Years After Massacre - 07 August 2008

Reuters - UN rights envoy meets Myanmar political prisoners - 07 August 2008

Voice of America - Human Rights Watch: No Improvement in Burma's Human Rights Since 1988 'Massacre' - 07 August 2008

Comments

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a move he said was necessary to combat rising Islamic extremism, but was widely seen as a ploy to prolong his own presidency. http://beepartner.com/2008/06/30/chinese-are-declared-to-be-black-so-are-chinese-are-fully-black/